


Welcome to the Game

by themultifandomnerd



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Keith is Neku and Lance is Shiki essentially, M/M, Slow Burn, The Galra are the Reapers, has this au been done before?, i'll probably add tags as i go along, twewy au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 06:16:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9479093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/themultifandomnerd/pseuds/themultifandomnerd
Summary: When Lance McClain died, the last thing he expected was to spend an entire week playing a life-or-death game for a second chance at life. Add the fact he also needs to place his complete trust in some random emo Billy Ray Cyrus lookin’ motherfucker he literally just met? Peachy. Did he mention that if he failed at said game his entire family dies with him? Yeah. Nice.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I wanna thank my dear buddy, [ ColourlessZero ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ColourlessZero/works), for beta reading this story for me. She's a real peach and I definitely recommend that you check out her fics because she is a brilliant writer and takes a lot of pride in her works. So if you're a Haikyuu!! fan.... *whispers* check her stories out.

Lance McClain was frantic as he ran down the main street, trying to ignore the discomfort as he phased through the people in the Realground [RG]. This was too much to take in all at once between running through people and being chased by the crazy tattooed frogs.

 

Lance yelped as he was intercepted yet again by one of them and he skidded to a halt, nearly tripping as he turned right.

 

 _Fuuuck!_ he screamed mentally, looking around. Looking out for the frogs and looking out for the people. That was what he needed: people. People in the Underground[UG].

 

The timer on his hand was mentally sending him ticks to show the passage of time. “Find a partner, complete the mission. Find a partner, complete the mission. The Noise won’t bother me if I have a partner and we can complete the mission.” Lance repeated that like it was a mantra, his blue eyes scouring the area. He cursed mentally as he saw a pair passing him up nearly half a block away. They were shooting him sympathetic looks.

 

They were Players in the Game.

 

 _Don’t look at me like I’m erased already!_ he wanted to yell, but Lance directed his focus back on the task at hand.

 

He needed to find another Player and make a Pact with them. Which was easier said than done.

 

Hell, _dying_ should have been easier said than done! _This definitely isn’t what I signed up for when that asshole hit me with his motorcycle._

 

It was almost humorous when Lance thought about it. Not that he could really afford to think about it given his current situation. But he had to keep himself occupied somehow while he kept an eye out for potential Players.

 

It’s quite simple. Lance had been jaywalking when he had reached his untimely demise.

 

Now before you start going on about how that made his death entirely his fault, in his defense the nearest car coming in his direction was going slowly enough for him to reach the other side walk with little to no disturbance if he kept a fast pace. Then the next thing he knew he was heard “Watch out!” and when he looked in the direction of the shout he was hit.

 

The next thing Lance knew, he woke up in the middle of the street with a cloaked woman in front of him.

 

_“Wh-what just happened?” Lance stammered. “Where am I? I was right by a Starbucks!” He whipped his head around frantically. Starbucks was no longer anywhere in sight and all that he could see was a wall with a lot of graffiti._

 

_The woman gave an amused smirk. Lance couldn’t see a lot of her face with how she was hunched over, but he could see enough and he was offended. “Simple. You just died.”_

 

_Lance felt his jaw dropping. “What?!” He scrambled to his feet in disbelief, leaning against the wall when the vertigo hit him like a ton of bricks. “What do you mean I just died?! I’m standing here talking to you! Dead people don’t do that!”_

 

_Cloaked Lady snorted contemptuously. “How would you know?”_

 

_Lance opened his mouth to retort again but stopped just short. How would he know what dead people did? He had never ended up in the afterlife before._

 

_“You’re just waking up.” Cloaked Lady went on as if the interruption prior had never taken place. “But the memories should be returning to you shortly.”_

 

_As if on cue, memories did begin flooding into his mind in flashes. He had just gotten out of the Starbucks his best friend, Hunk, beautiful man, worked at when he heard a “GET OUT OF THE WAY!!” and when he looked–_

 

_A red motorcycle was right in front of him._

 

_Everything went dark after that._

 

 _A strangled gasp escaped Lance’s throat. “Holy shit,” he breathed, “I died. I literally just died!” Some asshat that was driving way too fast in a 25 mile zone hit him with his motorcycle. “That guy had to be going at least 50 and he couldn’t slow down?! He killed me!” The idiot hadn’t even been wearing a helmet, Lance remembered._ Did I get a good look at his face? I kind of remember thinking that I saw it but….

 

_The lady in the cloak interrupted Lance’s train of thought. “I’m glad to see that you’re getting the picture.”_

 

_“S-so what is this? Some kind of judgement hall?!” What was the point of trying to remember a face when he was stuck in Purgatory? It wasn’t like he could enact some kind of vengeance for his life being taken away now._

 

_“Not quite.”_

 

_“.... so I’m not going to Heaven or Hell or something?” The brunet’s mind was all over the place. He wasn’t necessarily the most religious person in the world. Lance liked to believe there might be some kind loving all mighty being somewhere out and about, but with the shit the world was constantly in with the pain and suffering it was hard to believe someone so great would let all this stuff play out and not try to interfere in anyway. He found this interesting since he grew up in a Catholic family–_

 

_Lance’s mind went blank. His family._

 

_He thought back to his final moments. He was dead now. He had things like his phone and his wallet with him when he died, so they’d be able to identify him and call his parents to let them know their second oldest kid was now deceased._

 

_He’d never see them again._

 

_Lance could feel wetness prickling in the corners of his eyes._

 

_“Don’t tell me you are going to cry.” Cloaked Lady’s voice was full of disdain._

 

_Lance sniffled and rubbed away furiously. “You would too if you just found out that you were dead and would never see your family again!” He winced inwardly at how his voice seemed to crack._

 

_“Well if you would let me finish, you would find out that isn’t the case.”_

 

_“.....” Lance’s eyes narrowed. “But you just said I was dead,” he countered, “what kind of joke is this supposed to be? Is this a game? Am I dead or not?”_

 

_“To answer those questions, you certainly are dead. At the moment.” Cloaked Lady said smoothly. “And you’re right about one thing, this is a game. Or at the very least, an offer for one. The Composer has looked you over and has decided to let you choose to play it. If you win, you can come back to life. You’ve been invited to play the Reapers’ Game.”_

 

_There was a pause._

 

_“So I just have to play this game and I can come back?”_

 

_“If you win, of course. Losing would mean losing the right for you to exist, but you do have the option to say no.”_

 

_As if Lance would ever say no to the option to coming back to life._

 

_“If you choose that option it will result in you losing your existence entirely with no hesitance.”_

 

_Well, fuck that was nice to know._

 

_“There will be no backing out once we’ve reached an agreement that you are playing. Do we have a deal?” A sickeningly sweet smile spread across Cloaked Lady’s face._

 

_“Well, yeah!” Did she really even have to ask? Who would turn down a deal as sweet as this? “What’s the Reapers’ Game?”_

 

_Cloaked Lady answered the question quickly, “The Reapers’ Game is quite simple. For one whole week, seven days, you must complete the various tasks assigned to you by the Reapers before the timer strikes zero. If you don’t accomplish the mission, you will be erased for not completing the mission within the time limit immediately.”_

 

_Lance gulped. “Got it.”_

 

 _“You will be sought out by creatures called Noise and they also have the ability to erase you after dealing so many physical wounds on you. And if you are_ lucky _enough to get to the seventh day and complete the mission the Composer will arrive and allow you to come back to life.”_

 

_That did sound pretty easy. “These missions hard?”_

 

_“The tasks start off small but do get more difficult as time goes on,” Cloaked Lady admitted, “but I’m sure a strapping young man like you can get the job done.”_

 

_Lance puffed out his chest with pride. Hell yeah he could beat this game. “You and your partner, that is.”_

 

_“What?”_

 

_“A partner,” Cloaked Lady repeated. “The Reapers’ Game must be beaten in pairs. After our little meeting you will receive the mission, but you must find a partner or you will be erased by the Noise. So find one quickly and make a Pact, and the Noise will no longer be able to harm you without first being provoked.”_

 

_“....” Lance pursed his lips. So he needed to find a random person to beat this game with. “... Alright. I can work with that. People love me!” He was a social butterfly, making friends with ease for as long as he could remember._

 

_“Indeed.”_

 

_Lance wasn’t sure if Cloaked Lady was being sarcastic or actually agreeing with him. He was going to go with sarcastic. Cloaked Lady brought a hand out of her cloak, holding a fist full of something. It was held out expectantly and with a flash of realization, Lance held out his own hands right underneath. On cue, Cloaked Lady released her items into his hand._

 

Pins? _Lance felt a surge of disappointment. There were five of them to be precise. A red one with a flame on it -- how original --, a purple one with a weird zigzagging blue streak, a black one with a white glove or hand, blue with yellow lightning, and something that looked like it had an orb thing on it?_

 

_“These will be your weapons while in battle.”_

 

_Absurd. “You seriously mean to tell me that these pins are going to be my weapons? What am I supposed to do? Throw them at the Noise?”_

 

_“The pins are trial and error when it comes to individual personality, but you use them to control psychs. Your phone will have some more information on them as you add more and more pins to your collection.”_

 

 _“My phone?” Keeping the pins in one hand to leave one hand free Lance dug into the right pocket of his jeans and swiped over the screen where he saw a blaring circular app._ Well that’s new. _He clicked on it and there it came, a menu with pin names and descriptions. “Pyrokinesis, creates a path of flames.” It said for the red one with the flame on it. “Ice drop, slash vertically to form an icicle…. Cool, I guess.” When Lance looked up from his phone, he saw that Cloaked Lady was holding up another pin._

 

_It was all black with a white skull on it with a more graffiti-esque motif. “What’s that thing supposed to do?” He asked, putting away his phone and shoving the other pins he accumulated into his jacket pocket._

 

_“It’s a Players’ Pin, an essential part of the Reapers’ Game. It shows you’re a part of it and allows you to scan thoughts of those in the Realground.” Within seconds the Players’ Pin was pinned onto Lance’s baseball tee._

 

_“The Realground?”_

 

_“The plane where those of the living roam. We’re currently in the Underground. It’s in the same plane as the Realground, however, the Underground has a higher vibration frequency. Do you understand?”_

 

_Lance believed he had the gist of what she was saying. Same plane, but dead people on one frequency and living people on the other. Those names were way too long. “Yeah, yeah. I got it. Dead people in the UG, got it.”_

 

_“I’m glad you pick up things fast,” Cloaked Lady said. “Do you have anymore questions or do you think you’re ready?”_

 

 _“Yeah… I think I’m ready.” Lance gave a little bounce._ You can do this, Lance! Get a partner, beat the game, come back to life at the end of the week! _“Let’s get this show on the road!”_

 

_Cloaked Lady’s lips were twisting into a grin. “Good, good. However, Lance. Before you can play, you must submit a fee. You can’t have something like this for nothing, wouldn’t you say?”_

 

_Lance clicked his tongue. He knew this was too good to be true. Second chance at life for free? Apparently ‘free things’ weren’t a concept even in Purgatory. “I don’t exactly have physical money on me. All I have is a debit card.”_

 

_“Not your money, boy.” Cloaked Lady’s grin turned into a look of annoyance. “For an opportunity like this, the fees are much higher.”_

 

_“.....Then what?”_

 

_“Tell me, Lance.” Cloaked Lady stepped closer. “What would you say is dearest to you most? What are you going to be giving up in order for a second chance to living?”_

 

_Before Lance could even say anything he winced as if he felt a hand shoot through his head and directly into his conscience. Caressing it, jiggling through it as if looking for keys in a jar. Except he could feel Cloaked Lady jostling through memories, events and days that passed by throughout Lance’s life._

 

_“Oh, I see.” The woman’s voice seemed to echo in his mind. “Your immediate family…. They seem to be of utmost importance to you. They will be your fee.”_

 

 _What? Lance wanted to say in disbelief, but his lips and limbs felt like jelly. His eyes began to sag down. Cloaked Lady chuckled. “I hope you find your fee to be a great incentive to win. For if you lose, your family’s right to exist will disappear completely just as yours._ **_Welcome to the Game, Lance._ ** _”_

 

Then Lance woke up in a completely different part of the city, got the mission in the form of a text, and the chase from the tattooed frogs ensued.

 

Lance’s lungs burned as he panted.

 

That was how he got thrown into this mess. Cloaked Lady came in with her words as sweet as honey and got Lance to think this was a walk in the park. But no, he was playing for his family too!

 

Mom, Dad, all of the people he grew up with in his large household. The Reapers had them now and would erase them the moment Lance and his partner screwed up. “If I can even get a partner!!” Lance bellowed in frustration.

 

Everytime he seemed to stumble upon a Player they were already taken.

 

So either he was in a deserted part of the city (as far as Players in the UG went) or there was an odd number of Players and Lance just got the short end of the stick and there was nobody else around.

 

If that was the case he was really about to give the Reapers’ Game a big middle finger.

 

**Crooooak.**

 

Lance tried to make his ridiculously long legs run even faster than he was going now. Not right now, not this day. Not ever.

 

Lance McClain was not getting erased by tattooed green frogs and he was going to beat this game into the dirt.

 

If only he could find another Player who was just as royally screwed as he was. All Lance could see were Noise symbols as far as the eye could see, probably storming around. First day is the easiest my ass. Lance scoffed. If anything, it was the hardest. Outrunning Noise and just finding a partner was difficult enough as it is, and the timer was still going and seemed to be ticking fast.

 

When the timer first arrived on his hand he had sixty minutes on it. He had no idea how much of that time was left since he had been running for his life right after getting it.

 

**Get to Alfor Tower. Fail and face erasure. – The Reapers.**

 

Lance’s lungs were screaming at this point, breaths feeling like dull knives on the side of his throat. His legs hurt like hell too. He’d never ran this long in his whole life.

 

_Okay. I know I’m not the sweetest person in the world for telling Pidge they looked like a gremlin for the fifth time today but if karma could just… throw me bone here! I’ll tell Pidge they look like a cherry blossom for the rest of my life!_

 

 _“AAAAAHHHH!!!!”_ That was only one of the bloodcurdling cacophony of screams that came from in front of him.

 

Lance wanted to groan. Apparently karma wanted him to suck it. He began booking for the nearest street corner he could see through the waves of people walking by and enjoying their lives, completely unaware of the chaos that was unfolding in the UG. Another wave of discomfort went through him as phased through a random businessman.

 

He was heading right for the City Plaza where the screaming ahead came from. Players must have been getting erased. Time to find a new location to find Players th--

 

“Can someone tell me what is going on?! Why is everyone ignoring me?! Hey! I’m being chased by, by these things! Don’t you see them?! They made all these people disappear!”

 

Or not.

 

Lance skidded to a complete halt and whipped his head furiously back to the City Plaza. He could see someone running just as frantically as he was. They were dressed in all black save for their red and white shoes.

 

And he was alone and he was being chased by Noise.

 

This was the one.

 

Lance looked over his shoulder to see the same couple of frogs on his trail. _Fuck it._ He’s going for it. He wasn’t letting this guy get away.

 

“Hey!” Lance was waving his arms in the most obnoxious windmills he could think of to catch the new guy’s attention. “ _Heeey!!!_ ” The guy finally gave him a glance. “I’m getting chased too!!”

 

That was enough for him because he started sprinting in Lance’s direction and man was he fast.

 

Find a partner, complete the mission!

 

Find a partner, complete the mission!

 

When they finally reached each other Lance grabbed the boy’s shoulders frantically. “Form a Pact with me so we can get rid of the Noise!”

 

“What?! Wh–”

 

 **_“Please!!”_ ** Lance’s eyes were wide. “Form a Pact with me so we can get rid of the Noise!”

 

The boy’s eyes were as wide and panicked as Lance felt, but he finally relented. “Alright! We have a Pact!”

 

Lance felt nothing but relief. He made a Pact.

 

There was a suddenly blinding light and the loud sound of static. _Oh thank crow,_ Lance sighed. The Noise were gone. Letting go of his new partner’s shoulders, Lance collapsed onto the ground with a loud ‘phew’. “I thought I was gonna be a goner. I’m really glad I found you.” He finally looked at his palm for the first time in…. 25 minutes?!

 

35:20. They had 35 minutes and 20 seconds left to complete the mission.

 

“Yeah, we should probably just hurry up and finish the mission for now.”

 

“What mission?! What was with the light show?! And the frogs!”

 

Lance rolled his eyes. “You didn’t look at the text from the Reapers?” But then again, Lance couldn’t get too mad. Maybe this guy got chased right after waking up and didn’t even have time to look at his phone. “We need to get to Alfor Tower. We had an hour to do it and we’re already almost halfway out of time. You can check your own ticker if you need to.” Lance waved the palm of his right hand at him to emphasize the point. “So we need to get going. And don’t bother asking about the light show thing, maybe the Reapers like making Pacts look fancy.” Cloaked Lady definitely made the Reapers’ Game seem a lot less…. dangerous.

 

“What. The. Hell.” Lance looked up at his partner. He was staring at his own palm after taking off one of the gloves, and staring widely at the clock on it. _He wears fingerless gloves? What a weirdo._

 

But instead, Lance said: “Yeah, weird place to put our timers but whatever. Like I said, we should take off now.” Lance took a deep breath as he forced himself up gingerly. His legs were yelping in protest but he had no choice but to continue on. His family was depending on it.

 

The mission wasn’t going to wait for anyone, the timer proved that. “We’re in City Square so if we fast walk, at least, we should get to the Tower in about 15 minutes. So that’s like…” Lance looked back at his palm. It was 33:44 now. “We’ll have about 17 minutes to spare if we go n..ow….”

 

Where the hell was his partner?

 

Lance’s neck cracked a little with how fast he looked around for wherever the hell his partner just disappeared to. His eyes locked on him pretty easily.

 

He was running off in the opposite direction of where they were supposed to be headed. “Hey!” What kind of rude piece of–“HEEEY! Quit running off!” Lance wasn’t able to completely run in front of this guy, but he was able to grab his arm. “Alfor Tower isn’t that way at all, dingus!”

 

Glove Boy snatched his arm back and gave Lance a furious glare. “I’m not going to a random tower with some stranger.”

 

Lance wanted to explode. “We made. A fucking. Pact.” He grounded out. “We aren’t strangers anymore, we’re partners! And this is going to be one hell of a long week if you don’t cooperate!” He gave this guy as fierce a glare as he could as he got a good look at his face. The guy had a mullet. What the hell? Who even had a mullet anymore it was 2017. That should have been left in the 80s with Billy Ray Cyrus. “So can we just–”

 

“What week? A week of what?!”

 

Uuuugh. “The Reapers’ Game is a week long, right? Didn’t they tell you about this already?” Cloaked Lady definitely told him about all this.

 

Mullet Head, a much better insult than Glove Boy, didn’t seem any less riled up than before. “They?”

 

 _“The Reapers!”_ Lance wanted to pull out his hair. His own and Mullet Head’s. “The guys in charge of the Reapers’ Game, the people expecting us to complete this mission or we get erased! Those guys! So if you could hurry the hell up and move your ass back in the _right_ direction–” Lance gestured grandly behind him. “We can avoid that last part! You know, the getting erased part! We just got over the Noise trying to kill us so can we go?”

 

Mullet Head wasn’t saying anything. His eyebrows, which were almost as large as Hunk’s, were furrowed making his brow form a deep line on his forehead.

 

“....” Lance sighed. He’d have to be the cool one here. Maybe this guy just had a shitty orientation into the Game. “Okay, let’s try this over again. The name’s Lance, partner. Do you have a name I can put on you, or am I stuck with ‘Mullet Head’?”

 

Lance was once again greeted with silence as Mullet Head looked around. “Altea City?”

 

“Uh, yeah. That’s the place. The place with Alfor Tower. Which we should be heading to right now. So could we hurry up?!” Forget learning Mullet Head’s name, they needed to get to the Tower before the timer completely reached zero.

 

Lance could remember the sound of the static from when the Noise right behind him got erased. He wasn’t trying to reach the same fate. “So can we go to the Tower?”

 

“When we get there this ends?”

 

“That’s literally what I’ve been trying to tell you for the past five or so minutes.” Finally the guy was getting it. “So can we go now?”

 

Hours seemed to pass by before Mullet Head finally gave a slow nod. “Fine. Let’s go.”

 

“Thank you.” Lance lifted his arms briefly in exasperation before turning around and heading in the actual direction they were supposed to be going. They were on East Central and Alfor Tower was on International.

 

That was two and a half blocks away.

 

Lance had seen Alfor Tower plenty of time growing up in Altea, both on TV and just by seeing it in the distance as he walked around town. It was an iconic building that came to mind when the location Altea City was mentioned to tourists. Named after the founder of the city, Alfor Tower was the largest building in all of downtown. The largest building in the city, period. Lance had never been in it though, so this would be a first.

 

Beside him, Mullet Head had been keeping pace.

 

Lance gave Mullet Head another side glance. _….. Do I know this guy or something?_ Lance’s eyes narrowed. Maybe it was just him, but Mullet Head did look vaguely familiar to him. Vaguely. Did Lance run past him during his scramble to find a partner? Keith mentioned people being erased before when he first saw him. Maybe they passed each other and Lance assumed that Keith was someone’s partner already.

 

He had no idea, but Mullet Head was still a tool with old hair.

 

Lance decided to go walk even faster. He didn’t care if this was his partner for the week. This guy was a pain, but beggars can’t be choosers, he heard time and time again.

 

Lance lifted his hand up again. It had been ten minutes since he last checked it and that whole thing with his partner being a complete ass had thrown them off. He felt a prick of anxiety. “This will be fine,” Lance muttered, “sure we’ll have less than ten minutes to spare when we get to the tower. But it’ll be fine.”

 

“Do you always talk to yourself?”

 

If Mullet Head was trying to be insulting, it worked. “No and even if I did that’s none of your business!” Lance snapped and he heard Mullet Head scoff and mutter something incoherent. _Why you…._ Instead of verbally retaliating, Lance broke into a jog. He felt a flash of satisfaction when he heard Mullet’s sound of surprise.

 

“Hey!”

 

“I just want to hurry up and get to the tower!” Lance lied. “Try and keep up!”

 

“I could say the same to you!” It didn’t take long for Mullet to catch up. It didn’t take long for him to completely pass Lance up either.

 

So it wasn’t just a fluke of adrenaline earlier. Mullet could actually run fast. Faster than Lance, the brunet hated to admit. “Good luck outrunning me when you don’t know where we’re going, ass!” Speaking of which, Lance found himself flickering his gaze briefly to Mullet’s actual ass. Small but perky. _Okay okay okay, mind off his ass, Lance._

 

Mullet didn’t slow down his pace. “Then just tell me where to run!”

 

Lance held back a groan. He couldn’t even tell him to run into the wrong direction unless he wanted to get them both erased. “See that water fountain? Turn left!” He tried to make himself run faster, but his legs weren’t having it.

 

He’d just have to settle for running in second place. “So do you have a name you can tell me now? I’ve been calling you Mullet this entire time now!”

 

There was a pause and Lance almost interpreted that as a ‘Fuck off, Lance’ until he heard: “It’s Keith.”

 

Keith, Keith. “Got it, I can remember that.”

 

When the tower finally came into Lance’s sight, he gave a cheerful laugh. “There it is!”

 

A brilliant dark blue in the light of the sun. Alfor Tower looked as pristine as always.

 

They were about to make it. They were actually going to complete the mission despite all the setbacks. Lance could see four people running up ahead near the tower doors. They must be other Players. Lance was glad that there were other people who had made it and hadn’t fallen prey to the Noise that attacked them all.

 

They were all doing this. Then one of the people ahead yelped in pain after running into apparently nothing.

 

What the hell?

 

“What’s going on?” Lance asked a girl when he and Keith finally reached them, her expression was panicked.

 

“There’s some kind of wall!” She answered. “It won’t let us in!”

 

Lance felt panic filling him once more. “Are you serious?!” How in the hell were they supposed to get into the tower if they couldn’t get in!

 

There were four minutes left now and this happens. Lance gave Keith a worried look of his own. “This is the Tower but no one is being let in!”

 

“I heard.” Keith was frowning again. He looked to the right, then the left. Then he bolted diagonally to the right.

 

Lance didn’t know whether to scream or cry. His partner was running off in a completely different direction and when the entrance was somehow blocked off. “Get back here!” Lance didn’t even know why he was chasing after his lousy excuse of a partner. “Keith!”

 

But Keith showed no signs of stopping until he ran into something and gave a hiss of pain.

 

Another wall?

 

“I was trying to get to the parking lot and see if there was a back entrance.” Keith gave a hard kick to the air, then jumped back with another hiss. “But there’s a wall here too.”

 

Then they really were doomed.

 

Lance looked at the timer on his hand again. It had two minutes and ten seconds left on it. Lance couldn’t speak or move. This was it. The entrance and a possible back entrance were both cut off. He would be erased and on the first fucking day.

 

One minute and thirty seconds left.

 

He wasn’t coming back to life from his accident and his family…. They were going to be erased too.

 

The timer on his hand was becoming a red blur as Lance could feel his eyes welling up with tears. He could hear Keith growling. Maybe he was still trying to ram down the invisible wall. Which there was no point in doing.

 

The timer was still ticking off to their doom.

 

Lance blinked away the tears that had been welling up. “It’s gone.”

 

“What?” Keith whipped his head back to look at Lance.

 

“The timer, it’s gone now!” Lance brought his hand even closer to his face and there was nothing to see aside from the lines on his palms. It was as if the timer hadn’t been there in the first place.

 

Keith pulled off his right glove and his eyes widened. “Mine’s gone too.”

 

_But we didn’t complete the mission!_

 

Lance brought his gaze up when he felt Keith prompt him with a ‘hey’. “Let’s go back to the entrance.”

 

It was short run back to the entrance and Lance was shocked to see that the wall everyone had been complaining about had simply vanished. The four people weren’t there anymore, but two of them were still running up the stairs.

 

“What happened!” Lance called.

 

The two people ahead of them didn’t reply and before Lance could do anything else, Keith was running up the stairs as well. Lance followed suit without any complaint this time to being left behind. The answers they needed were up these stairs and in the tower. Lance didn’t even mind how he phased through the front doors.

 

“What’s going on.” Lance panted as Keith shot one of the other Players a question with a sharp look.

 

The girl from before answered, “Those guys over there completed the mission. So it’s okay. The Reapers were making sure we all were in Pacts.”

 

Seriously?

 

“So… if one of us completes the mission, we all do?” Lance stammered, needing clarification.

 

The girl shrugged. “I guess so, but I’m not sure. Our timer went away after the first team got in.”

 

A deep sigh escaped Lance’s throat. That was too close a call for him and he wasn’t looking forward to that happening again. Tomorrow was going to be different. This time there would be no Noise chasing after him until he foundd a partner, he had his partner. “Looks like we finished day one, Mullet.” Lance gave a shaky laugh. “Hopefully tomorrow’s job is a whole lot easier.”

 

All the irritation from earlier towards Keith had evaporated.

 

The panic was over until tomorrow.

 

* * *

 

“Sir, every remaining Player is now in a Pact.”

 

“Oh?” There was a hint of intrigue in Zarkon’s eyes as his line of sight danced over to his Conductor. “And just how many Players have been erased?”

 

Haggar bowed her head briefly in respect, her cloak almost swallowing her whole. “Out of the fifty or so Players we had at the start of the game, only thirty five remain.”

 

Zarkon's eyes crinkled. “So we’re on schedule.” He didn’t sound pleased, he only stated it matter of factly. The Composer of Altea City’s Underground made it a habit to not reveal any emotions aside from displeasure and his praise had to be earned. And earning Zarkon’s praise was no easy feat.

 

“Yes,” Haggar confirmed.

 

“Good. Tell the Harriers that slacking off the rest of the week will not be tolerated.” Zarkon ruled his Underground with an iron fist. “Anything less than the standard amount of points will result in erasure.” This had been the first Game in a month, and now that the perfect amount of Players had accumulated for a round, Zarkon was not going to let incompetent Harrier Reapers ruin everything.

 

“I’ll let them know immediately. I’ll let alert the Support Reapers as well. There shouldn’t be even the slightest errors in execution.”

 

Zarkon’s eyes flickered, but he didn’t lash out.

 

Haggar continued on, “Now as for the Game Master. Have you made a choice in who it shall be, or should I keep on sending out the missions for the Players? The Harriers have been getting antsy. Sendak and Prorok in particular. Do you have any objections to one of them being the Game Master.”

 

“Sendak and Prorok are both ambitious.”

 

“They do have notably high counts of points they rally per game,” Haggar concurred. “They would both be reliable choices for Game Master.”

 

Zarkon didn’t say anything for several long moments, then he finally opened his mouth. “Have Sendak and Prorok report to me. We will have a little discussion on whom I think will be the better of the two.”

  
Haggar bowed her head once more before turning around and walking out of the Composer’s room

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the TWEWY AU no one asked for! This was an idea I've had in my head since last year and I'm finally acting out on it because if you haven't heard of The World Ends With You, you need to, and this is the best way to get that job done *superhero pose*
> 
> But shameless promotion for my favourite game aside, I finally decided to break the ice into Voltron fanfiction writing with my own tale. Mostly because I'm hype that I'm finally in a fandom where my favourite ship is the main ship, and also to break me out of the slump of writers' block I've been having for ages. So I'm looking forward to where this story may lead me.
> 
> Hopefully, there will actually be some readers that will join me *prayer hands emojis*.
> 
> Comments are always appreciated.


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